


The Bodyswap Incident

by Bronzeflower



Category: My Time At Portia (Video Game)
Genre: Also alice/sam is a good pairing and i really should write a fic with them as the focus, Arlo is oblivious, Bodyswap, But like in Sam's body bc it's a bodyswap u know, Civil Corps, Drinking, Drunkenness, Flirting, M/M, POV Arlo (My Time At Portia), There's nothing that actually happens in this fic that warrants a mature rating, They're kind of more background in this one, and it's mentioned enough that i'm marking this fic as mature just to be safe, but there is some implications of mature content, not beta read we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:54:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22565860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bronzeflower/pseuds/Bronzeflower
Summary: The Civil Corps capture a criminal, and, in doing so, they get their bodies swapped.
Relationships: Alice/Sam (My Time At Portia), Arlo/Builder (My Time At Portia), Arlo/Male Builder (My Time At Portia)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	The Bodyswap Incident

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, I was possessed by a sudden urge to write this fic and did it all in one sitting. I don't even like body-swap stuff that much, but this idea would not escape me

It happened in an instant. One moment Arlo was staring down at some criminal the Civil Corps caught, the one who was being tied up by Sam, and the next, he was looking down at the unfinished knot with the rope in his hands.

Arlo quickly finished tying the knot and looked up to find...himself?

"Oh, wow," Remington said. "I am not a fan of this."

"What did you do?" Arlo's body demanded, glaring at the criminal.

"Just a little trick of mine!" He gleefully cheered. "Thought you might like to see from someone else's point of view!"

"You're still under arrest," Arlo said, although his voice came out much higher than normal. "We'll interrogate him back at the Corps. Come on."

They made it back to the headquarters of the Civil Corps, and they eventually found out that the three of them had switched bodies.

Sam was now in Remington's body, Remington was in Arlo's, and Arlo was in Sam's. Good to have gotten that cleared up.

"Are you going to switch us back?" Arlo asked, crossing his arms.

"Can't," The criminal said, shaking his head. "It's not how that works, but it will wear off in a week, so you'll all be back to normal eventually."

"Fine," Arlo sighed. "Remington, you stay here to watch him. Sam, go inform the mayor of the situation. I'm going to go patrol around town to make sure no one else was affected."

"Yes, Sir," Sam and Remington said, and Sam and Arlo ran off to do their respective duties.

Arlo patrolled the town, talked to a few people, and he soon came to the conclusion that only the Civil Corps had swapped bodies.

And, while that was a relief, there was still the worry that the body swap might affect the Civil Corps’ ability to do their jobs.

Apparently that was also a worry of the mayor, who recommended that they keep the situation under wraps to prevent the townsfolk from worrying about the safety of Portia. So Arlo, Remington, and Sam got together to discuss taking each other’s patrol routes.

They were still going to keep their main duties, but most citizens saw them patrolling, and, if they changed up their patrol routes, there would certainly be suspicion.

However, they did decide to tell a few people, such as Dr. Xu and Phyllis in case of any kind of medical issues that might arise as a side-effect of the body swap, as well as individuals like Alice, who was in a relationship with Sam, and both Arlo and Sam agreed that letting her know would be for the best in order to avoid any awkward situation.

But, generally speaking, as far as the townspeople were concerned, everything was perfectly normal.

“Sam!” A certain builder’s voice rang through the air as Arlo reached the end of Sam’s patrol route. “You’re almost done with patrol, right? Let’s go get some drinks, on me! I’ve got so much to tell you about.”

“Sure,” Arlo ended up agreeing. He probably should have refused the invitation, given that Victor was pretty good friends with all the Civil Corps, and therefore would be able to easily tell if one of them was acting strangely, but it had been a while since Arlo had been able to hang out with Victor.

And, well, Arlo liked Victor maybe a little more than he should.

So Victor and Arlo-as-Sam went to the Round Table for a few drinks. Victor ordered what was probably his and Sam’s usual.

They had some nice light conversation as they waited, but, the moment their drinks came, Victor took a hold of his and downed it immediately, the liquid practically disappearing.

“God! Fuck!” Victor grumbled, slamming the glass back on the table. He brought a hand up to wipe away some of the residue off his mouth. “He’s just so fucking stupid!”

Arlo took his own glass and took a sip of it. It wasn’t what he normally drank, but he needed a moment to process what Victor had just said. Victor looked angrier than Arlo had ever seen him.

Although, given how happy-go-lucky Victor was whenever he was around Arlo, Arlo was honestly coming up with any time when he saw Victor angry at all.

Luckily for Arlo, he didn’t have to come up with a response as Victor continued to talk.

“I spar with him constantly, I give him gifts, and I flirt relentlessly, and, I swear to God, he just will not take the hint! Like, holy shit! I told him I wanted to ride him, and he offered me a ride on his _horse_! Sorry, Arlo, I meant your dick, not your goddamn horse!”

It took literally all of Arlo’s self-control not to spit out his drink. Arlo had honestly thought he misheard Victor when he told Arlo that he wanted to ride him.

“He’s so smart and strong and ambitious, but he’s so dumb!” Victor whined, taking a hold of the next drink he was given. “What does a man have to do to get dicked down around here?”

“You could always just ask him out yourself,” Arlo found himself saying, almost surprised by hearing Sam’s voice coming from himself.

Victor leveled him with a glare.

“If he barely reacts to even the most blatant of my flirting, then how could he possibly like me back? It’s hopeless, Sam. Hopeless!” Victor took a swig of his drink.

“I can promise you that he likes you back,” Arlo stated, taking a small sip of his own drink. He’d have to keep a careful watch on how much he drank himself, but, with how much Victor was drinking, Arlo was pretty sure he wouldn’t notice if ‘Sam’ was acting off.

“You always say that!” Victor cried. “But there’s practically no indication of that being true! He’s always super professional, and he takes his job so seriously. Last week I told him that I could call him Captain in a context outside of his workplace, and he told me that I should just stick to calling him Arlo because calling him Captain Arlo was too stuffy. Like, oh my god.”

“Maybe try flirting with him in a non-sexual way?” Arlo suggested, and Victor frowned.

“I’m not really any good at that,” Victor sighed. “Guess I could try. Any suggestions? You’re with Alice, right? How do you tend to flirt with her?”

Arlo found himself flushing involuntarily as he thought of how Victor was actually flirting with him, but Victor took it differently, as he grinned at Arlo.

“Awww, you two are so cute,” Victor gushed. “You don’t have to tell me now, but I know you’ll gush about her sooner or later. Payback for having to listen to me yell about Arlo all night.”

Arlo managed to keep his cover for the night even as Victor described in explicit detail what he wanted to do to Arlo. He was honestly surprised that Sam allowed Victor to do this, but he figured that she was usually too drunk to remember whatever Victor said. Victor was probably too drunk to remember what he said.

Unfortunately, Arlo was very, very sober, so he helped Victor home and thought about everything he found out over that night of drinks as he made his way back to the Civil Corps.

Arlo met up with Remington, who had a disappointed expression on his face.

“Care to explain to me why Victor flirted relentlessly with me today?” Remington asked, and Arlo blushed.

Thankfully, Sam entered at that moment.

“Guys, I forgot to tell you something!” Sam shouted.

“Does it have anything to do with Victor telling me that my ass looked particularly nice today?” Remington questioned, and Arlo sputtered.

“Yeah…” Sam admitted. “Victor’s a little, uh, outspoken, about his affections of the Captain.”

“Arlo.” Remington crossed his arms and glared down at Arlo very seriously. “Were you or were you not _recently_ telling me that there was no way that Victor could like you back?”

“Oh my god, you really are that oblivious,” Sam gasped. “I thought Victor was exaggerating.”

“They’re not even dating!?” Remington yelled. “This was the kind of situation we wanted to avoid when we told Alice. I would have, maybe, at the very least, liked a heads-up about it.”

“I really am sorry that I didn’t tell you immediately,” Sam apologized.

“And why did you not tell me, Arlo?” Remington questioned.

“I think we’ve established that I never noticed.”

“Okay,” Remington rubbed the bridge of his nose. “We’ll just tell Victor, and, hopefully, that will prevent any of his borderline sexual harassment of Arlo, or his body, at least. How did you not notice?”

“I didn’t want to be presumptuous,” Arlo said.

“Presumptuous,” Sam stated. “Really. Do you know how many times Victor has complained about how stupid you are to me?”

“Uh, well,” Arlo shuffled. “That’s kind of how I found out…”

“What?”

“He asked me, well, you, out for drinks, and I hadn’t hung out with him in a while, so I ended up accepting, and, well…”

“Incredible,” Sam sighed. “Absolutely incredible.”

“So it’s decided. We tell Victor of the incident tomorrow,” Remington declared.

“Maybe we shouldn’t tell him it happened yesterday though,” Sam advised. “Given the general realizations that occurred today.”

So they made the agreement to tell Victor, who took the news pretty well, all things considered, and he promised not to tell anyone.

After that, Remington reported that Victor was no longer blatantly flirting with him, which was the main issue that was meant to be avoided when informing Victor.

The rest of the week passed by without incident, although Arlo honestly couldn’t stop thinking about what Victor had said, but Arlo wasn’t about to do anything weird to Sam’s body. That was just disturbing and a little gross. But he still had plenty of time to ponder what to do about Victor actually sharing his feelings.

Thankfully, the criminal they had captured was accurate in saying that they would switch back in a week, although it was very much jarring to suddenly be thrust out of one body and into another.

It was definitely his own body though, which was certainly a relief. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could have stood being in Sam’s body.

They updating everyone who knew about how everything was back to normal, along with giving a warning about interacting with the criminal who swapped their bodies.

Gale made a note about it at the Fireside talk the following Sunday, although the only person Arlo really had to worry about interacting with the criminal was likely Toby. But, even if Toby did want to interact with the criminal, one of the Civil Corps members was always stationed there, so he would always have supervision if he did go in there.

So Arlo and the rest of the Civil Corps went back to their own personal schedules, which, of course, meant Arlo’s personal daily run-in with Victor.

“Hello, Arlo!” Victor greeting, a wide smile on his face.

“Hey,” Arlo responded, not really being able to keep his own smile from appearing, although it certainly was much smaller than Victor’s.

“I brought you some spicy fish soup!” Victor declared.

“Oh! Thank you!” Arlo accepted the gift.

“You’ve got hair like the sunset, you know,” Victor said.

“...What?”

“You know, when the sun sets, and the sky goes this lovely shade of red that’s a little bit orange? It turns a similar shade to your hair,” Victor explained, and Arlo flushed.

“Thanks,” Arlo unconsciously ran a hand through his hair. “...Your hair is a nice color as well.”

Despite the fact that Arlo now knew for a fact that Victor liked him back, the blush that spread across Victor’s cheeks caught him off-guard.

“Ah, well…” Victor flustered, pretty uncharacteristically, all things considered. “I did get it redyed recently…”

Victor continued rambling about nothing, and, with how flustered Victor got, Arlo got the distinct thought that he should probably flirt back more often. At least, when he notices he’s being flirting with in the first place.

“Oh, yeah!” Victor interrupted himself. “Let’s spar!”

“You know I’m always up for a good spar,” Arlo agreed to the match, and then Victor promptly kicked his ass.

“Wanna rematch?” Victor asked, and, of course, Arlo accepted, only to get his ass kicked again.

“One more time,” Arlo demanded, and Victor got this manic grin on his face as he kicked Arlo’s ass for the third time.

“I didn’t beat your ass too badly, did I?” Victor questioned, helping Arlo up at the end of their final match.

“Nah, I always look forward to our sparring matches,” Arlo reassured. “I always like a good challenge.”

“Same here!” Victor said. “And you’re basically the strongest guy in town, so you’re my favorite to spar.”

“Paulie’s not gonna be happy that you think that.”

“Strength isn’t all about how much you can lift. Once he understands that, I might agree with him, but, currently, his attacks are always super easy to dodge because they're so slow."

The two of them discussed the importance of variation in fighting style before Victor had to leave, with the claim that he had a commission to finish up.

The next day, Arlo was being presented with a Heart Knot.

"I like you!" Victor practically shouted. "Would you like to be my boyfriend?"

"Yes, I'd love to!" Arlo almost immediately responded.

Later on, Arlo found out that Victor had gotten the confidence to ask out Arlo because of how Arlo had flirted back for once, as well as how Victor ended up getting help with romantic flirting from Alice.

Arlo was almost thankful for the body-swapping incident. It made him aware that Victor had been actively flirting with him for months and helped him finally reciprocate the affections.

And, well, Victor did get to do all those things he wanted to do to Arlo. And it was fucking great.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm actually almost done with an explicit fic between my builder and arlo, which i will likely link from this fic when i finish it
> 
> anyway, i don't actually think that arlo is this oblivious - I think he's just very professional acting - but this scenario was too fun to imagine. my builder is the type of person to ask someone out the moment he knows they might share his feelings


End file.
